>> we need to show the republican party in america we can win again. guess where they are going to be watching our tuesday night to see if we win? right here in new jersey, everybody. they are going to be watching out. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," road to 2016. the parade of familiar faces hi the campaign trail ahead of tomorrow's election is giving voters a potential preview of the next presidential contenders. >> it sounds like you're planning for a message beyond new jersey. is that a fair assessment? >> i'm not planning for it. i just think it's inevitable. >> don't forts about hillary clinton. even without stepping food in iowa this weekend she was still the main event in the crucial

presidential primary state. >> 2016 is hillary's time. run, hillary, run. if you run, you'll win and we'll all win. >> life support as they scramble to repair healthcare.gov by the end of the month deadline. can the obama administration recover from the damage already inflicted by the rough rollout? >> whether you like the model of obama care or not, the fact that the president sold it on a basis that was not true has undermined the foundation of his second term. i think it's rotting it away. >> double down. they changed the game with political tell-all that went behind the scenes with 2008 election. mark halperin back with latest insider scoop that's already shaking up the political landscape. they will noin me to share some of the most revealing moments of the 2012 white house including

fallout inside team obama after this first debate performance rocked the campaign on its heals. >> take it and go to congress, fight for it. >> that's what we've done. made some adjustments and we're putting it before -- >> you've been president four years. you've been president four years. >> good monday to you. hope you had a great weekend. i'm kristen welker in for andrea mitchell. a billion dollar presidential campaign is about more than what we see on television. authors mark halperin and john heilemann proved that with "game change." details about the 2008 campaign that made its way to the tv screen. now back at it with "double down." much read for political junkies

how they navigated a tough presidential campaign in a hyper partisan, hyper connected country. the authors of "double down." mark halperin and john hileman, msnbc political and editor of the magazine. thanks for being here. >> good to be here. >> one of the most stunning moments of 2012, the denver debate and the president's disastrous performance. the obama team was trying to calm down democrats but then they went to williamsburg for debate prep and began to panic themselves. even the president said i don't know if i can do this. how did they turn a negative into a positive 48 hours later. mark, i'll start with you? >> we found in reporting for "double down" the most dramatic thing we found. barack obama, how he talks about his own struggles with the

theatricality of politics. the setting was sunday night before the debate, mock debates, he and john kerry playing mitt romney. first session on saturday went okay. sunday night was a horrible experience. the president was like he was in the denver debate, lethargic, professorial, didn't seem like he was fighting for the job. at times peevish, nasty to governor kerry sitting in for mitt romney. they were panicked. that prep ended and you had a scene which we write about in double down, plouffe, axelrod, debate advisers staying up to well past midnight saying what do we do, what do we do? how can we turn this around? we can't do down this path. they did what they called an intervention with the president. four aides and the president alone meeting to try to find how to turn things around.

in short in the scene the president said, as you said, i'm not sure i can do this. they did a couple of things, how he needed to change his state of mind about it. they gave him one-liners, debate on a page to try to just come up with anticipating the questions, coming up with one-liners to use in the debate, and the president resolved he was going to do it. they also gave him a lot of coaching. they came up with phrases to remind him how he had to focus on theatricality, hates to say -- every time he said an answer he was supposed to speak quickly and be theatrical. before the debate he felt confident he could turn it around. again, as we say in the book, a lot of advisers went into the debate biting nails not sure he would turn it around. david plouffe said if there's another bad debate we could lose this election. there was a profanity in that sentence which i left out here. >> the first lady weighed in, so did former president bill

clinton who they call big dog. what roll did they play in getting the president back on track? >> bill clinton at that point after having one of the great things about the book is the way we trace the relationship with bill clinton and barack obama during the whole term, particularly the election year. by the time theta to the second debate, bill clinton was on barack obama's side. it hadn't been like that. he was trying to give obama advice, trying to tell him he didn't want to try to do to much at hofstra, didn't want to make up all the ground he lost. the president's debate team more or less rejected bill clinton's advice. they said, look, barack obama has to come out swinging in the second debate, he has to look like he's fighting for the job. the first lady was very upset about the way the debate prep had been handled during the first debate. the president had been kind of -- he got to denver late. he was in kind of a bad hotel. he had a rushed meal before the denver debate. he couldn't get his two daughters on the phone, kind of

a remarkable thing for a working president not to get a working phone line. she said to david plouffe, everything has to be right for him. his food has to be right. has he to work out, get to sleep more, have his friends around him. everything about his state of mind matters. she recognized the stakes in the second debate were sky high. >> one of the nuggets, as you both know, have gotten a ton of tank is this idea president's advisers daily were poll testing considering replacing biden with clinton. over the past couple of days, some of the people involved david axelrod, jay carney suggested that was never a consideration. was this a big deal or not a big deal? >> a big deal in the following sense. have you a presidency at the low point, after the last round of budget negotiations in 2011. the president's poll numbers are down. he's seen as weak. bill dal y, white house chief of staff at the time, look, we have to consider, as he said the other day, we have to consider

every option. one thing to look at, do the due diligence, lets test it, lets see how obama clinton does compared to obama/biden. now, when the results came back it showed it didn't help that much and didn't go forward. but it is sort of extraordinary. if you think about the white house chief of staff, the top advisers. it was a very small group that knew about this david plouffe, axelrod, the president's pollster. for that group of people to say, look, we need to take a look at this, even though they knew it was a long shot and there would be a downside. it was certainly part of the history of this administration. shows you as a data point, obama let cal family and clinton political family had come so far it was something they were willing to take a look at. they were right it didn't happen. they were right results didn't argue for going forward. make no mistake they looked at it because of the perilous political position the president found him in at that point. >> john, one of the points that's just fascinating you both bring up is the trip the

president makes to his hometown chicago he's home, makes a rare trip to his house. get you to respond. now alone in his old house for just the third night since he had become president he started rummaging through boxes, digging, digging until suddenly he found it. a small nour plan panel paper booklet the world had never seen before. on the front gynecological hospital, in honolulu. on the back was a picture of a hawaiian queen on the inside page were his name, his mother's name and his date of birth. does it suggest the birther controversy was weighing on him more than he ever let on, more than we knew? >> absolutely. at that point in time you recall donald trump was making a big deal out of the possibility the president was born in the united states.

that very day when the president had felony from washington to chicago for the first fundraisers of his campaign for election, donald trump had just given an interview with george stephanopoulos, had asked about birther controversy, two questions about it. obama was driven crazy by this. he thought, a, it was totally stupid. he knew he was born in america. but he thought it was crowding out real issues the country faced. it had become a distraction. he made a jock about it on stage in chicago. then he goes home to his old house and starts digging up through the boxes of his deceased mother and came up with this document. he had never seen it before. he didn't know what it was. it was the kind of thing that seemed to maybe put this thing to rest. he brought it to washington, proud of having found it. immediately his lawyer said that's not a birth certificate but it restarted the discussion in the white house about whether to go back to hawaii and seek

the actual long form brt certificate which they did put out just about two weeks later. >> lets talk about the romney campaign. they were considering a number of possible vp candidates and had some names for awful them. i think we have a graphic of some of the names. puffer fish for chris christie. as you point out the romney campaign had serious concerns with chris christie's background. one of the reasons they didn't pick him. were you surprised christie has gotten such a big part of the buzz surrounding this book particularly as he heads to the polls tomorrow or folks head to the polls to potentially vote for him? >> look, he's a big exciting figure in american politics. there aren't many people like him. he's on his way tomorrow to be re-elected by a resounding margin. the fact there's focus isn't a surprise to either of us. what we found reporting the story, mitt romney's consideration of governor christie. what we found surprising was first of all he considered him and then rejected him because he

thought there were too many aspects of his past which had been looked out a little in new jersey, in context of the politics there. governor romney said, look, in the national race everything is different. it will get a lot of scrutiny. he didn't want the distraction sarah palin caused when she was selected by john mccain. he rejected governor christie. then his adviser, main political adviser said, you know what we're losing this race because we're not competing in day to day news coverage. we're in a street fight to win the white house. we need the bess street fighter in the country. that's chris christie. governor romney said lets start looking at him. part of the problem, scrutiny, vet with chris christie, he was remarkably uncooperative. they would ask for things, document and other information. whereas other candidates handed things in promptly, governor christie does not. we don't know of a case where they agree to be vetted then slow walks things in. that frustrated the vetting

team. the head said, look, if we ask for something and don't get it back, we have to assume there's something negative there. we can't assume the best. governor christie sent his stuff in, not everything from the vetter's point of view, wrote a report after a crash vet and said here are the concerns we have, the missing documents. publish in the book excerpts from this vetting report which are normally held totally close hold. after governor romney got the report with dvd showing governor christie's more flamboyant moment confronting constituents at home, the day after governor romney said for the second time i'm not picking chris christie as my running mate even though i agree he brings a lot of strengths to the ticket, there's too much of a prospect things in his past, some of which are public, some have not been, get so much scrutiny would be at best a distraction and at worst a political problem.

>> fascinating. i want both of your takes on the next question. a personal question for both of you. things have changed since you wrote your first book, game change. take a look at this picture. you tweeted it out. july julian moore, in the movie, how did this differ. >> both were incredible professional pleasure to work on both of them. we are students of politics and students of in particular the kind of high human drama of politics. this is like in every presidential election, beyond the intricacies of things it's a great competition for the most important office in american life. for us to spend our day jobs focused on this stuff all the time and then take some time off and sit with people for long interviews. we did 500 interviews with this book with more than 400 people

and really get to see what actually was going on behind the scenes. in both cases it's identical, it's been a real pleasure, most satisfying professional experience either one of us have had and we've been lucky enough to do it twice. >> were sources more willing to talk to you this time? >> it was pretty much exactly the same. 400 interviewss more for the last book. a number of people who declined to participate fewer than a dozen for the first book. mostly relatively minor people in the context of the overall story of the campaign. sometimes people will accuse us of relying on people with axes to ground or sources with an agenda. we're pretty experienced reporters. if you interview 400 people, you get the consensus view of where the truth lies and you're able to not rely -- we didn't in the first book or this book. we're not relying on agendas, we rely on everybody not just in the two main campaigns but throughout this thing. that gfs you a consensus story.

it's remarkable satisfying, demands of daily, weekly journalism are now such as you know well you're usually lucky if you talk to a handful of people for a story. rarely more than once. we had a luxury of interviewing multiple times. one of the reasons we feel what we're doing is important is because people's memories have short shelf life. if these people are interviewed in the context of the campaign, you ask them what happened in the campaign five months from now, a year from now, they are never going to remember. campaigns don't have a lot of documents. we're happy to capture all this stuff with a lot of cooperation in realtime. >> mark halperin, john, congratulations. thank you for being here this afternoon. >> thank you very much. with the 2012 election in our rearview mirror, it's time to take a look at big 2013 races reaching the finish line tomorrow night and what the results could mean for 2014 midterms and beyond. joining me for the daily fix

chris cillizza, host of tv's "in pla play". thanks for joining us. i want to start with one of the big names of "double down" we were just discussing him chris christie. he spoke with kelly o'donnell about any concerned tea party conservatives outraged. take a listen to what he said to kelly. >> i think what you'll find with tomorrow night's results you don't have to worry about that. you appeal to everybody. we'll get huge republican support, 94, 95% tomorrow night at least. it hasn't affected us at all. i don't think it will affect me or this kind of politics anywhere in the country because people want things to get done. that's the message here. they want government to work for them. >> so christie says he's not worried about that. still he is looking for a large margin of victory. what would that mean and why is that so important, chris. >> kristen, i think anything over 60% for him would be huge.

we have not seen a margin like that for a republican in new jersey since the late 1980s. so it would be a remarkable achievement if he could break 60% poll. quinnipiac put him at 61. he's right around the area. the same poll showed him winning one in three democrats. there is an obvious effort. they have been somewhat honest about it. there's an effort here by christie and his folks to send a message with the number in the way in which he won two republican -- republican donner class, republican activist class, republican consulting world that he is someone who now will have a proven record of not just winning once in a state that traditionally goes for democrats but winning twice and winning the second time overwhelmingly. this will be, i think, a sort of foundational pillar when, as i expect, though we don't know yet, when i expect he does decide to run for president in 2016. >> lets talk about the other big

gubernatorial race in virginia, vice president biden stumping with terry mcauliffe. president obama was just there yesterday. what does a win in virginia mean not only for mcauliffe but for 2014 and what message could it potentially send to the tea party? >> look, assuming terry mcauliffe wins and most polling suggests he's ahead by mid single digits and high single digits, assuming he wins, there is no question about virginia as a toss-up state. you can at least make the argument that it may swing slightly democratic in statewide elections. it's elected -- bob mcdonnell is the republican governor now, three out of the four governors, mark werner, tim kaine, mcauliffe, three of the last four governors have been democrats. barack obama carried the state in 2008. he carried the state in 2012. so there's an argument to be made that virginia is definitely a toss-up state and maybe thumb

on the scale toward democrats, which is a remarkable change in the last six year. >> all right. chris cillizza, thanks for joining us this afternoon. appreciate it. up next senator patrick leahy. we will be right back. stay with us. [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future. ♪ into the future. i started part-time, now i'm a manager.n. my employer matches my charitable giving. really. i get bonuses even working part-time. where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day. healthcare starting under $40 a month. i got education benefits. i work at walmart. i'm a pharmacist.

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welcome back. there is a growing frustration within both political parties on capitol hill over just how intrusive the nsa and federal government as a whole are into the lives of every day americans. one leading senator is introducing a bipartisan solution that could be the framework for reform. senate judiciary chairman pat leahy co-authored freedom act with republican congressman jim sensenbrenner. thanks so much for being with me this afternoon, senator.

>> glad to be with you. >> you were one of the leading authors of the patriot act in 2011 now you're proposing to ban nsa from collecting bulk data among other things. can you pinpoint the moment you changed your mind about this government surveillance programs and decided these programs needed to be curbed? >> i never really changed my mind. i thought in the patriot act i pushed to make it a lot tighter than it was. i joined with conservative leader of the house dick armey to put sunset provisions in. that's one of the reasons we now have this debate because it forced the congress to review it periodically. but we've reached a point where this seemed to be if we could do it, we should do it. no matter what it does to your privacy, no matter what it does to your sense as an person if you're left alone. the nsa says we can collect every one of your phone calls

and virtually everything else, we have to do it in case someday you need it. you can imagine what it would be like if the local police department said we're just going to break into your house, steal everything out of your files and out of your records because someday we may need it. everybody would be in an uproar. the same thing electronically. i got the response when we criticized them. we're going to be careful, protected these records. bologna. this is the same nsa that couldn't protect their greatest secret from a 29-year-old subcontractor who stole them out, marched them off to russia and has been letting them out every other day with embarrassing revelation to the united states. no, they can't keep our secrets and shouldn't have them. >> as you know, nsa director, other top intelligence officials

continue to argue that the collection of bulk data is necessary for national security. they say they have thwarted as many as 50 terrorist plots. so can you guarantee if your bill is passed that their efforts won't be hampered, that it won't hurt national security? >> of course i can't. the head of security said we've thwarted 54. nobody called him on it. at this point he's in a hearing, has to tell the truth. it went from 54 to maybe a dozen to finally ended up by saying, well, straws instrumental helping fbi thwart one case. lets stop. make us safer if we have a person follow every single american, every single minute of the day? possibly. do we want that? no. we'll always face at the time in this country but the greatest threat should not be from our own government prying into every

single one of our secrets with no accountability whatsoever. we saw that. give secrets away to a 29-year-old subcontractor. another branch of government which gave away some of our most important secrets when a private first class loaded them on his lady gaga cd and walked off with them. no, these are not -- they shouldn't have every single one of our secrets. it's not making us safer. they may want to twist the statistics to make it safer. nobody who really studied this can say this made us safer. >> senator i want to ask about that 29-year-old. there's been talked about edward snowden getting clemency. he has asked for that. should he get clemency? >> no. he's not getting clemency. the fact he broke the law, he stole classified material. what i ask the question is, who has been fired at the nsa for being so sloppy, so negligent to

allow a 29-year-old to allow a 29-year-old to walk away with highly classified material? nobody has to my knowledge. >> important question. senator leahy, thank you so much for your time this afternoon. we appreciate it. coming up, big news at the supreme court. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins me next. stay with us. you're giving away pie? would you like apple or cherry? cherry. oil...or cream? definitely cream. [ male announcer ] never made with hydrogenated oil. oh, yeah. [ male announcer ] always made with real cream. the sound of reddi wip is the sound of joy. see who does good work and compare costs. it doesn't usually work that way with health care. but with unitedhealthcare, i get information on quality rated doctors, treatment options and estimates for how much i'll pay. that helps me, and my guys, make better decisions. i don't like guesses with my business, and definitely not with our health.

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for more information and savings options, call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com. restore a state law banning drug induced abortions. the law passed in 2011 but struck down by the high court last year. what was implications for the legislation. joining me justice corporation pete williams. hey, pete, thanks for being here. first i want to get your broad take on this. what are the larger implications of the court's decision. what does this mean for other

abortion legislation? >> well, in a technical way, the simple answer is it doesn't mean anything because the court didn't decide it. it decided not to decide it. the oklahoma supreme court found the state law there unconstitutional. it's a state law that restricted or state supreme court eliminated the two pill regime, are you for borings early in pregnancy. now the supreme court has decided not to hear it. earlier it said it would hear the indicates now that it knows oklahoma supreme court said it basically bans this, the supreme court said we're not going to hear that. i wouldn't think it's a good sign for advocates in other states. four other states have a similar law, arizona, north dakota, ohio and texas. we may have an abortion case at the supreme court but it has to do with what's going on in texas on the other issue, which is requiring abortion doctors have admitting privileges at nearby clinics. >> pete, i want to turn to the shooting that occurred at lax on friday. what is the latest there? we're learning more about the

suspect? >> yes. although i think this is going to be a slow going investigation. they are looking through his computers now, paul ciancia to see what it is that got him attracted to this rhetoric in his handwriting letter from the radical right. anti-government reviews, federal reserve, sovereign citizen type stuff, referring to tsa saying if tsa is going to treat average americans like potential terrorists, it's a self-fill filling prophecy. what drove him to that, it's impossible at this point. secondly he's not talking. his medical condition is critical. he's wounded in the face and head. there's some question if this is brain injury that will complicate their ability to talk to him. >> pete williams, thank you for that update. >> you bet. >> a lot of travelers still reeling from that. we will be right back. [ male announcer ] at humana, understanding what makes you different

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the u.s. is preparing to sit doup this week with iran at a critical point in high-stakes nuclear talk. representing under-secretary of state wendy sherman, andrea spoke with under-secretary sherman at the state department. take a look. >> madam secretary, welcome. thank you very much for being with us. >> thank you. >> the vice president, the secretary of state pressing congress not to tighten sanctions against iran. why shouldn't we be when they have been so effective bringing them to the bargaining table? wouldn't it strengthen your negotiating position? >> thank you, andrea. it's very good to be with you this morning. indeed it is the sanctions that have largely brought iran to the table. we're grateful imposing tough

set of sanctions. u.n. as well as country sanctions as well. we are, however, at a very serious moment in these negotiations. they are serious, substantive and offer possibility we can stop advance of iran's nuclear program and gain transparency and negotiate long-term comprehensive solution. so what we've asked is not stop potential for sanctions we believe it's important and enforcing all on the books but we've asked for a pause, to give us just a few weeks to see if we can get a first step agreement that would stop advance of iran's nuclear program. we don't think waiting a few weeks should hurt the effort here. in fact, i have said to iran and have used it as leverage in the

negotiation that we've asked congress for a pause. if iran moves forward, then that pause can be there. if iran does not move forward, then well, of course, continue our strong partnership as we have today with the congress to impose new sanctions. this is really not a sanctions vote. this is a negotiation vote. this is a vote for a peaceful resolution to an issue which is very critical. president obama has said he will not allow iran to have a nuclear weapon that is our firm commitment, a negotiated diplomatic solution is the best way to get there. >> saudis and israelis and other allies think we are too eager, you and the administration are too eager for a deal and are going to give away the store to iran. >> hardly. in fact, secretary kerry said constantly, as has the president, that no deal is better than a bad deal. i have very clear instructions

from the president, from the secretary that we need to make sure in a first step we stop advance of iran's nuclear program to put time on the clock. that in return for that if they deal with all the issues we want them to deal with, there would be limited sanctions relief, temporary, targeted and reversible. indeed, fundamental architecture would remain for final comprehensive agreement. >> israel's concern is iran's position is they want to keep enriched uranium rather than exporting it as previously suggested. they can break out from a bomb, keeping this enriched uranium, israel said they don't need for emergency purposes. >> we quite agree. p5 plus 1 in the amonte proposal put on the table by p5 plus 1. >> you mean the allies. members of the security council.

>> all the members of the security council plus germany, thank you. have said we must deal with the stockpile of 20% enriched uranium. there are many technical ways to do that, to make sure it's not available for breakout. moving outside the country is one way. dilution or conversion to oxide is another. transparency, monitoring, verification will be critical to any choices and decisions made. we have not agreed to anything. we have not lifted any sanctions. we are in the midst, for the first time, of very, very substantive negotiations with iran. i know that the american people, world community want to resolve this peacefully if we can in a good deal, a deal that ensures iran will not gain a nuclear weapon. >> now, you're going to be sitting across the table from the iranians working with the germans, french, other allies. right now this is a very nasty

moment in our relations with europe because of the nsa spying flap. what can you do and how uncomfortable is it to be with our friends and allies who frankly are really angry at the u.s. for eavesdropping on angela merkel and other leaders. >> well, people are angry as you say, but they also understand it is important that iran not get a nuclear weapon. this is really at the top of president obama's inbox. this is the top of prime minister cameron and the president's inbox, top of the inbox for president putin and head of china as well, the other p5 plus 1 partner as well as chancellor merkel. we are focused on what the objective here is stop iran from having a nuclear weapon. we had the last round of p5 plus 1 negotiations during the government shutdown here in washington which didn't make it particularly easy either.

indeed because we are so focused on peace and security for the world community, it trumps virtually everything else. >> and what about the syrian situation and iran's involvement in syria rearming the assad regime, aren't those other issues complicating nuclear negotiations? >> we are focused in the p5 plus 1 solely on the nuclear negotiation and to prevent iran from having a nuclear weapon. there's no doubt that the united states believes that iran should not be sending its military to syria or financing lebanese hezbollah. indeed before p5 plus 1 meeting next week, there will be another meeting in geneva on tuesday with joint special envoy lakhdar brahimii russians, other members as well to focus on moving to geneva conference for a new syria. so we are trying to deal with each of these issues on its own terms but for the p5 plus 1 on

iran, the focus is solely on the nuclear program. >> wendy sherman, madam secretary, thank you so much. safe travels. good luck on the negotiations. >> thank you, andrea. the great conversation and again those talks set to take place in geneva in just a few days. coming up the fight to end discrimination in the workplace faces a crucial take test later in the senate. todd griffin champion of the human rights campaign joins me next. [ male announcer ] a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, this can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain and improve daily physical function so moving is easier. because just one 200mg celebrex a day

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the senate will hold a key vote in just a few hours on the employment nondiscrimination act which would prohibit discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation or gender identity. it's far from the first time seen in congress but never seen enough support to pass. could this time be different. that's the big question? joining me now head of the human

rights campaign. thank you for being here. >> thank you. it's a pleasure to be here. >> lets take stock of this vote. dean heller from nevada says he will vote yes. a couple of other yes, rob portman, pat toomey, john mccain, have you been in contact with these senators? are they giving you any senators? do you expect this to pass? >> we've been working hard at the human rights campaign and coalition for months and months to show elected officials in washington this is a no-brainer for american public. the american public supports this with more than 70% of the vote. if you look at the polling in 50 states, a majority of support in all 50 states, missouri the lowest at 62% support. incredible bipartisan support. unlike any other issue, i don't think you can find another issue that has such incredible bipartisan support. it's such a common sense american value. judge people based on their work performance not on who they are,

how they are born. >> you know having bipartisan support doesn't necessarily mean it's going to make its way through congress, particularly the house, which will be a tougher slowing for you. read awe statement from john boehner's office today. the the speaker believes this legislation will increase frivolous litigation and cost american jobs, especially small business jobs. that comes from boehner spokesman michael steele. office points out this is not a new position on the part of the house speaker. still, doesn't it suggest this is going to be really hard to get through congress. >> look, there's no question. this has been hard for a long time. not for american people, republican voters, democratic voters. but in washington some things that should be simple prove not to be every now and then. i'm optimistic about where we're headed with this. john boehner knows what it's like to face the threat of being fired. the threat of firing john boehner is based on partisan differences, job performance issues. what we're talking about here is protecting folks from being

fired for who they are, for how they were born. >> i want to ask you about the executive order. i know there's been pressure on president obama to pass the executive order to accomplish similar things this legislation would accomplish. jay carney was asked about on gg enda through congress. there's concern if the president passes this executive order it would take the pressure off congress to act. should the president sign this executive order? >> absolutely he should. it was a campaign promise of president obama's and we can do both at the same time. >> does it take the pressure off congress? >> i don't think it does. it's not the end solution. it will cover companies that are current government contractors but there's a large swath of the corporate america that won't be covered by an executive order. the president should sign the executive order and should sign it as soon as possible and congress should pass it so the president can sign it too. >> i want to ask you about a new campaign that you all are going to be launching, love conquers hate. you have a lot of big names in

hollywood helping you out with this. tell me what this is about. >> look, only a few months ago, russia passed a horrendous piece of legislation, we've even violence across the country skyrocket. what our hope is to shine a spotlight on that horrendous law and stand in solidarity with lgbt society in russia. you can purchase a t-shirt and proceeds go to the lgbt in russia. >> stay with us, we'll be back with more news. we've learned how to stretch our party budget. ♪ the only downer? my bargain brand towel made a mess of things. so goodbye so-called bargain brands, hello bounty basic. the affordably priced towel that's an actual bargain. watch how one select-a-size sheet of bounty basic is 50% stronger than a full sheet of the bargain brand.

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tomorrow our favorite day, election day, virginia seems to be the place to watch. you have vice president biden stumping for mcauliffe. what will you watch for tomorrow? >> i have a little bit of a political nerd flag to raise. the lieutenant governor's race in virginia appears to be over. terry mcauliffe goes in with every poll suggesting he's winning. keep an eye on attorney general's race, the third statewide office on the ballot. democrats have not swept all three races since 1989. if they sweep all three, big moment for the democratic party in virginia, a really bad moment for the republican party in virginia and lots of analysis about where virginia and the republican party stands. keep an eye on that attorney general's race, the closest by

polling, and maybe the most telling. >> all right, chris, thanks you so much. appreciate it. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tamron hall has a look at what's happening next on "news nation." our thoughts here are with andrea and her family as they mourn the loss of her beloved mother cecile who passed away yesterday at the age of 95. andrea, on behalf of everyone here at msnbc and nbc we're thinking of you. >> absolutely, our thoughts and frarz are with andrea on this day. coming up on our next hour, more on the democrats fight in virginia to sweep all major statewide offices for the first time in 30 years. a major victory for abortion rights activists after the supreme court rejects a case that would have made abortion drugs illegal in one state. plus, a judge expected to decide in the next few hours if the

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